Tap DJ Turns Your iPhone into Turntables

There's no shortage of DJ and music mixing apps in the iTunes App Store, but not all of them work well, or go so far as to turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a fully-featured pair of turntables with robust mixing features the way Tap DJ does.

There's no shortage of DJ and music mixing apps in the iTunes App Store, but not all of them work well, or go so far as to turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a fully-featured pair of turntables with robust mixing features the way Tap DJ does. If you prefer to be an iPhone or iPod DJ instead of lugging around a bag of records or even a laptop, Tap DJ might get you there.

The app allows you to access your iTunes library on your iPhone or iPod Touch, load up a pair of songs - one on each virtual turntable - and scratch, mix, and beat match to your heart's content. The platters are a bit small on the iPhone's screen, but with a single finger you can cue records, scratch, spin them around, and quickly access the library to switch songs. The app even incorporates a 3-band EQ for each turntable.

Tap DJ is available now in the iTunes App Store, and supports iOS devices running 4.0 or later, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad. Even though Tap DJ works on the iPad, you won't find the same number of features as in apps like djay for iPad, but you do get a lot of features for a modest price: only $1.99.

The layout of the app is designed to feel familiar to anyone who's spent time behind turntables. You tap the eject buttons on each turntable to remove the current song from the turntable and load a new one from your iTunes library, tap the platter to play it, or tap and hold to scratch or move the platter back and forth. You get volume and pitch controls at the bottom of the app's display, and a crossfader in the center. At the top of the display, you can see how many minutes are left in a song and see the progress bar.

By tapping a button at the bottom of the display, you can pull up an effects panel, the 3-band EQ for each turntable, and toggle turntable mode on or off altogether. You can also call up effects and loops to inject into your mixes for a little added flare.

Tap DJ also has some unexpected features, like the ability to access shared iTunes libraries over Wi-Fi or to import songs from an iTunes library attached to the device over USB. The app even allows you to record your mixes, save them, and share them with friends or with other Tap DJ users.